LCBH Series 2 has barely seen distribution and no one seems to be carrying them except, oddly enough, Wal*Mart (and that's mostly 2-packs and Series 1),....

This is my (conspiracy) theory on LCBH and Wal-Mart (and it's only speculation based on Wal-Mart and Toy Biz's previous dealings)...

I'm guessing Toy Biz/Marvel Toys sold Wal-Mart on LCBH based on the strength of sell-through on the ML Giant Man wave and the strong sales of ML in general at the time that LCBH would've been pitched to the big buyers. TB/MT probably also trotted out past sales of these books as potential sales of the figures. Also they would've pointed out that Witchblade and Savage Dragon have had somewhat popular TV series and that Conan, Judge Dredd and Marv had all been in major motion pictures. After that sales pitch Wal-Mart jumped in feet first and placed a way-too-large order for the line. Initial sales were good between collectors, speculators and scalpers then sales dropped off almost immediately after that and that along with Hasbro's floundering with the Marvel license right out of the gate is what kept Wal-Mart from buying into DCUC...

I think a lot of the worry going on about the future of LCBH is that Toy Biz was never this quiet about upcoming waves of ML. I know that LCBH is a bit different from ML considering all of the different licenses that are involved but still you would think that Jesse would have said more than dead silence... At least we were getting "Stay tuned!" from Toy Guru on the DC lines...

Sorry to disappoint you, but Matt Wagner himself assured me last year that it isn't going to happen. A Grendel movie ("Devil's Legacy," the Christine Spar storyline) was in preproduction at Warner Bros., and that put a kibosh on any Grendel figures coming out of LCBH/Marvel Toys.

Understood but. . .1) Reportedly, Marvel Toys had struck a deal for a comic only likenesses; Sort of similar to how Hellboy has one company doing animated and another company doing movie and comic book figures.2) Having spoken to Wagner in Dec 07, the Christine movie is in development hell and is very unlikely it will ever see the light of day, but he's keeping hope alive.

mako wrote:

Second, no toy company is going to withhold a line from any retail chain.....especially the 800 pound gorilla I like to call Walmart.

That brings me to the third point. Being the king of the mountain as far as retailers go, Walmart has more than enough clout to effect policy at any of the toy companies that sell through them. Not the other way around.

Agreed!

TRDouble wrote:

LCBH Series 2 has barely seen distribution and no one seems to be carrying them except, oddly enough, Wal*Mart (and that's mostly 2-packs and Series 1), and from the sounds of it, Series 3 is about 3 months late now. and Series 3 was never fully announced, IIRC; the series was only partially shown and never officially announced.

Agreed.

Jim_Abell wrote:

I know that LCBH is a bit different from ML considering all of the different licenses that are involved but still you would think that Jesse would have said more than dead silence...

No, when news is bad, he always stays silent. Also, with him getting more involved with Hasbro on helping out on their ML line, they're probably asking him to stay more quiet like they they do and only have him talk through official channels that they approve of. That's speculation on my part though.

Sorry to disappoint you, but Matt Wagner himself assured me last year that it isn't going to happen. A Grendel movie ("Devil's Legacy," the Christine Spar storyline) was in preproduction at Warner Bros., and that put a kibosh on any Grendel figures coming out of LCBH/Marvel Toys.

Understood but. . .1) Reportedly, Marvel Toys had struck a deal for a comic only likenesses; Sort of similar to how Hellboy has one company doing animated and another company doing movie and comic book figures.2) Having spoken to Wagner in Dec 07, the Christine movie is in development hell and is very unlikely it will ever see the light of day, but he's keeping hope alive.

OK, I talked to him in January '07, so your news is newer than mine. Good news about Marvel Toys (if LCBH survives), bad news about the movie. I would have preferred a "Devil By the Deed" movie starring Billy Zane as Hunter Rose, but even Wagner admitted such a villain-centric movie would be a really hard sell.

OK, I talked to him in January '07, so your news is newer than mine. Good news about Marvel Toys (if LCBH survives), bad news about the movie. I would have preferred a "Devil By the Deed" movie starring Billy Zane as Hunter Rose, but even Wagner admitted such a villain-centric movie would be a really hard sell.

Wagner was extremely nice and talkative until I brought up the movie - was an obvious sore point for him and at least the impression that I got was that this should have been old news to me as a fan (but I don't read blogs or anything about that, so it was news to me) and he was tired of discussing it. But he mentioned he was trying to "keep hope alive" but there was positively no movement on it what so ever.

As for the Marvel Toys doing figures - that was from a Canadian online toy store who I have shopped with for years. He had the entire line up for series 3 and 4 from his distributer until Jesse called him personally and told him to take that down. I just figured I should clarify since I had originally said "reportedly."

I think a lot of the worry going on about the future of LCBH is that Toy Biz was never this quiet about upcoming waves of ML. I know that LCBH is a bit different from ML considering all of the different licenses that are involved but still you would think that Jesse would have said more than dead silence...

I think we all have to accept the fact that LCBH is gone (or at least on it's way out).

It was a great line, but we all knew a line of minor comic characters wouldn't last. Shocker couldn't even get theirs off the ground!

Now we get the silent treatment from MT, spotty, almost nonexistant holiday distribution of Series II, and no word at all on Series III. All are classic examples of a toyline in it's final death-throws.

Actually I'd disagree that only Wave 1 ever made it anywhere. Wave 2 is ALL over my area. Tons and tons of it. Wave 1 sold really fast here. We never even got some of the variants.

Hopefully the line isn't dead and it's going to be restructered to be comic centric so that it makes more sense. Split it half and half between two comic book lines per wave. None of this 1 character from book per wave nonsense.

So if the line is cancelled, why doesn't someone (Jesse) just man-up and tell us? Release a statement that it's done. Something about this just doesn't make much sense. Why wait 'til Toy Fair of SDCC to tell us it's over?

So if the line is cancelled, why doesn't someone (Jesse) just man-up and tell us?

Y'know, Jesse isn't the head of the company. He has to answer to those above him. Have you considered that it may not be his place to make such an announcement? It's not a case of him having to 'man up'.

Jeff

_________________Be sure to check out my blog here at AFi: toys, games and general nonsense:

Well then why doesn't someone tell us? What is the purpose for stringing us along for all this time? If it's over, why not just say it? And Jesse has been the mouthpiece for the line all along. I simply assumed he'd be in charge of delivering bad news too.